Posts tagged "Beck"

In 2012 Beck released an album of sheet music, Song Reader. Earlier this week, on July 4, Beck played songs from this album with a full band in London at The Barbican. It was Beck's first time playing songs from this album with a full band, and he was joined by a cast of collaborator… More »

Beck has lately been working on a new acoustic album, the follow-up to his 2012 sheet music affair Song Reader. But lately, he's debuted a couple of decidedly non-acoustic songs, so who even knows what he's up to. Last month, he shared a pillowy, synth-heavy new track called "Defriended." And now he'… More »

In 2009, "unfriend" was named the Oxford Word Of The Year (unfriend – verb – To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook). As far as I know, "defriend" is still a bootleg variant, but whatever. Lots of people unfriended Beck after his last "album," the McSweeney's-published sheet-music… More »

Last year, Beck released Song Reader, an album that consisted only of sheet music. He then spent months declining all requests to play the songs on that album, so nobody knew for sure what Beck's versions of those songs would sound like. But in July, Beck will play the whole album in London,… More »

Last year, Beck released Song Reader, an album that was only available as sheet music; it's still the closest thing to a proper album he's dropped since 2008's Modern Guilt. Beck has resisted any and all requests to play songs from the album live, so we've only heard those songs in our imagination's versio… More »

Well, Beck wins music videos for the day, probably for the week provided Kanye doesn't release "Runaway II" or something. While last week it didn't seem like Beck could get any more mad with 167-piece orchestra-fueled power, he has somehow already done so:… More »

There is so much going on here, I can hardly wrap my head around the whole thing. Beck and 160+ musicians have recorded a new, multi-instrument, yodel-filled version of David Bowie's "Sound And Vision." The cover has moments of awesomeness and "wow" but also feels like a scene in that episode of 30 Rock whe… More »

Apparently, the American automotive industry isn't doing that badly, since Lincoln appears to be spending a whole ton of money on a new series of reinterpreted art pieces called "Hello, Again." And as part of that campaign, Beck and the great music video director Chris Milk are teaming up for a new versio… More »

Beck boasts one of the most interesting, most schizophrenic discographies of any contemporary artist this side of David Bowie. Like Bowie, Beck has built a career on restlessness and reinvention, trouncing expectations impishly, almost recklessly. While rock-critic hindsight usually reveals this long-con approach as the thing that separates stars from legends, contenders from trendsetters (or,… More »

Following a GQphoto spread featuring Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors flaunting their suit game -- not to mention Lana Del Rey's occasionally bizarre gig as the face of H&M -- now Beck has made the transition from music to modeling. The sheet-music scribe just finished shooting a campaign for Yve… More »

As James Jackson Toth noted in our Premature Evaluation of Beck's new Song Reader, lots of musicians (as well as some of us for whom the name "musician" is truly too generous) are performing, recording, and sharing versions of songs from the sheet-music "album," but none of those people are Stephin Merritt. Well, one… More »

This is a first. I'm reviewing an album having only actually heard about a third of it. Of this third, the songs I've actually listened to are not performances by the artist whose name graces the album cover. In fact, I'm not sure he's even heard any of these performances. I know for a fact… More »

The new double-CD compilation Rework: Philip Glass Remixed, put together by Glass and Beck, has a ton of indie stars remixing pieces from the experimental music legend. Dan Deacon, Tyondai Braxton, Memory Tapes, Cornelius, Pantha Du Prince, and many others contribute, and Beck himself has turned in the 21-minute "NYC: 73-78," which stitches together and… More »

In 2012, the very idea of a breakup record has been rendered something of an anachronism. The divorce-album-as-discographical-inevitability is a phenomenon that historically occurs deep into an established artist's career, and very few new artists are afforded that sort of shelf life anymore. But it wasn't long ago that the notion of a mainstream artist… More »

Next month, Universal will release A Tribute To Caetano Veloso, on which artists like Chrissy Hynde and Devendra Banhart will cover songs from the tropicalia innovator and general all-around Brazilian national treasure. The album includes a contribution from longtime tropicalia enthusiast and Veloso buddy Beck, who takes on "Michaelangelo Antonioni," Veloso's song for… More »

As previously reported, Beck has contributed three songs to the new Playstation 3 game Sound Shapes. And we've already heard a preview of "Cities." But now, the video game is out, and versions of all three songs are out on the internet. In the gameplay videos below, we can hear the songs and… More »

Over the weekend, thousands of fans flocked to this year's Outside Lands at Golden Gate Park. Overcast and chilly weather was offset by the fire from the Metallica pyrotechnics and warm vibes from festival attendees. Neil Young & Crazy Horse turned up their guitars to close out Friday, Metallica blew everyone away with their hellfire… More »

Yeah, the Flaming Lips have found some unusual ways to present their music -- headphone concerts, Zaireeka -- but man, they've got nothing on Beck. Beck Hansen's Song Reader, the follow-up to the man's Grammy-nominated Modern Guilt, will only be available as sheet music. According to Becks new, um, label (?), McSweeney's:… More »

Earlier this week, we posted some info about the forthcoming PlayStation game Sound Shapes, a music-themed game that will feature three musical contributions from Beck. Today, via a new trailer, yielded a sample of "Cities," one of the tracks Beck wrote for the game. Watch/listen below. More »

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Last spring the world got a brief preview of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, the secret Wu-Tang Clan album that will be released in a limited edition of 1 and auctioned off to the highest bidder. That might be all most of us hear from the project for the rest of our… More »

Kanye West debuted his much-leaked single "All Day" at the Brit Awards last week, and now a studio version has emerged. The So Help Me God song's bouncy, bass-heavy beat also features verses from Allan Kingdom and Theophilus London, and a massive "Monster"/"Black Skinhead"-style riff slices through the track from time… More »

Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" was one of the defining jams of summer 2012, but it was the sort of song that screamed "one-hit wonder" from the rooftops. Well, that's not going to be the case. Today, Jepsen comes back with a new single called "I Really Like You," and it is absolute top-shelf… More »

Die Antwoord seemed to be on the verge of climbing to a new tier of celebrity this year with Ninja and Yolandi Visser playing prominent roles in the dystopian sci-fi twee oddity Chappie. Now they'll definitely be more famous, but not for the right reasons; notorious might be a better word for it. Drake and… More »

Mumford & Sons have announced the details of their third full-length, Wilder Mind, and it's bound to sound pretty different from the rest of the folk-rock group's output. As As they told Rolling Stone, the band went completely electric for the new album, ditching the folkier elements that catapulted them to fame. "We felt… More »